Hydraulically adjustable hospital bed



June 26, 1956 w. c. BENKER 2,751,605

HYDRAULICALLY ADJUSTABLE HOSPITAL BED Filed March 7, 1952 2 Sheets-Sheet l William CZBen/ier June 26, 1956 w. c. BENKER 2,751,606

HYDRAULICALLY ADJUSTABLE HOSPITAL BED Filed March 7, 1952 3 Sheets-$heet 2 grwm vbo'r William CZBen/ter United States Patent HYDRAULICALLY ADJUSTABLE HOSPITAL BED William C. Benker, St. Paul, Minn.

Application March 7, 1952, Serial No. 275,374

2 Claims. (Cl. -79) This invention relates to improvements in hydraulically adjustable hospital beds.

An object of this invention is to provide a hydraulic jack and linkage which may be easily installed on a hospital bed and which is actuatable by the patient to raise and lower a pivotal spring section of the bed.

A further object of the invention is to provide a manually actuatable hand lever on the frame of the hospital bed within the reach of the patient with linkage leading to a hydraulic jack connected between the frame of the bed at a leg thereof and the spring section to be pivotally raised or lowered.

A still further object of the invention is to provide a remote control actuator that is positionable on the frame of the bed Within the reach of the patient for controlling a hydraulic jack to permit it to raise or lower a pivotal section of the bed spring.

Another object of the invention is to provide in a hospital bed a hydraulic jack that is adapted to be pivotally mounted on a leg of the bed and which will incline upwardly and is adapted to be attached to the underneath side of a section of bed spring to be pivotally raised and lowered.

A further object of the invention is to provide a cross shaft which may be pivotally mounted to the bed frame for actuating the hydraulic jack to lift a pivotal section of the bed spring by applying a detachable hand lever to either end of the cross shaft.

For a more complete understanding of the nature and scope of my invention, reference may be had to the description and the drawings in which:

Figure l is a side elevation of a typical hospital bed showing the hydraulic jack and linkage;

Figure 2 is a plan view of a portion of the bed as viewed along section lines 2-2 in Figure 1;

Figure 3 is an enlarged side elevation of the hydraulic jack and its linkage as viewed along section lines 3-3 in Figure 2;

Figure 4 is an enlarged detail view of one end of the actuating cross shaft as viewed along section lines 4-4 in Figure 3; and

Figure 5 is a detail view along section lines 5-5 of Figure 4 showing the detachable hand actuating lever attachment to the cross shaft.

Throuhout the various figures in the description like reference numerals refer to similar parts.

.eferring to Figure 1, the hospital bed is generally indicated at 19 and has conventional head legs 11 and foot legs 12 with an intermediate bed frame 13 supported therebetween. The bed frame 13 has mounted thereon a spring generally indicated at 14 and comprised of a pivotal head section 15 pivoted at 15' to a center section 16 to which is pivotally attached as at 17' two foot sections 17 and 18 pivotally connected together at 18. A conventional mattress 19 is shown supported on the springs 14.

The conventional hospital bed is usually provided with a first cross shaft 20 disposed below the pivotal spring section 15 on the bed frame 13 and supported at both ends by depending brackets 21-21. Both ends of first cross shaft 20 are rigidly attached to lift arms 22-22 which are provided with an oifset outward portion 22 for engagement with the underside of the side frames 15" of the pivotal head section 15. The engagement of the ends 22 of the lift arms 22 with the underside of the pivotal head section 15 is a sliding engagement as best depicted in Figure 3.

Referring to Figure 3, I provide a hydraulic jack 25 to rotate the arms 22 which are rigidly attached to the pivotally mounted shaft 20. This hydraulic jack is generally indicated at 25 and has its lower end attached to a leg 11 of the bed frame by a pivot pin 26. This hydraulic jack 25 extends at an incline upwardly underneath the pivotally mounted spring section 15 to where the piston rod 27 extending out of the upper end of its cylinder 25 and connected with the piston within the cylinder of the hydraulic jack (not shown) is pivotally attached to one of the lift arms 22 as by a pivot pin 27'. The pivotal connection 27 of the lift arm 22 is toward the outer end thereof from the pivotal shaft 20 thereby permitting a large leverage to be obtained through the lift arm 22.

The hydraulic jack 25 includes a lever actuated pump 28 having an actuating lever 29 pivotally mounted at 29' to the housing of the pump 28. A pump rod 30 is pivotally connected at 30' with lever 29. The hydraulic jack 25 is provided with a control valve generally indicated at 31 which has an actuating lever 32.

Referring to Figure 2, there is shown a second cross shaft 33 extending parallel to the first cross shaft 20 and spaced therefrom and pivotally attached to the center section of the bed frame 13 by end brackets 34-34. The cross shaft 33 is held from crosswise movement within the brackets 34 by collars 35, see Figure 4, which surround the ends of the shaft 33 and are secured thereto by set screws 35. Still referring to Figure 4, there is shown in broken away cross section the end of the cross shaft 33 as being provided with a square shaped recess 36 for receiving a similar square shaped end of a crank arm 37 of actuating lever 37. There is shown in Figure 5 a detail of the bracket 34 as viewed along section lines 5-5 in Figure 4, the end of the second crossshaft 33 and the square shaped in cross section socket 36 which receives the square shaped in cross section end 37 of the manual actuating arm 37. It will be noted that the actuating lever 37 extends upwardly from the bed frame 13 at the center section thereof and above the mattress 19 where it may be easily grasped by the patient for actuation. The other end of the second cross shaft 33 is likewise mounted and provided with a square shaped in cross section recess 36 for receiving the square shaped in cross section 37' of lever 37. Towards one end of the second cross shaft 33 and in substantial alignment with the hydraulic jack 25 there is rigidly attached a depending arm 38, as best shown in Figure 3. To the outer end of arm 38 rigidly attached to shaft 33 is pivotally connected one end of the connecting arm 39 as by a pivot pin 39. The other end of connecting rod 39 is pivotally attached to pump actuating lever 29 by pivot pin 39".

As a control for the hydraulic jack control valve 31 there is provided an actuating lever 32 which is under the control of the patient by means of a remote control generally indicated at 40 which is here illustrated as a Bowden wire having one end attached to the valve lever 32 as at 40' and the other end of the outer casing thereof secured to the bed frame 13 as by brackets 42. The end of the Bowden wire 40 which is under the control of the patient is provided with a hand actuating knob 43 which may be easily pushed and pulled to operate the valve lever 32 of the valve 31.

In operation there is shown in Figure 3 in solid lines the position of the spring section 15 when it is pivoted to its normal horizontal position. The outer end 22' of lift arm 22 is shown in engagement with the underneath side of the frame 15' of pivotal spring section 15. In this position the control knob 43 of the Bowden wire 40 is in a position where lever 32 of valve 31 is in ready position for raising spring section 15. Manually operated lever 37 is grasped by the patient and oscillated back and forth as indicated by the double headed arrow in Figure 3 whereupon the second cross shaft 33 is rocked and it in turn rocks the arm 38 rigidly attached thereto whereby connecting rod 39 is moved back and forth to oscillate the lever 29 of the lever actuated pump 28. This actuation just described moves the piston (not shown) within the cylinder 25' of the hydraulic jack 25 and piston rod 27 is forced out the upper end thereof and rotates the lift arm 22 in a counterclockwise direction thereby raising the pivoted spring section 15 into the pivoted upward position as shown in broken line in Figure 3. In order to lower spring section 15, control knob 43 on Bowden wire 40 of the remote control connection is pulled outward by the patient and this rotates valve contact lever 32 to actuate valve 31 to a position to permit the hydraulic jack to lower the spring section 15.

All of the operation is carried out by the patient from a position easily within his reach at the side of the bed. The manually detachable and actuatable lever 37 may be positioned at either end of the second cross shaft 33 and thereby may be rocked back and forth by either the right or left hand of the patient. The hydraulic jack 25 and its linkage according to my invention could equally as well be attached to the foot end 12 of the bed and connected with one of the pivotally mounted foot sections 17 or 18 of the springs and these could likewise be under the control of the patient to be raised or lowered with equal facility.

, This hydraulic jack and linkage assembly may be easily installed on existing hospital beds. I have provided a minimum of parts which are reliable in operation and easily actuatable by the patient to raise or lower a pivotal section of bed springs.

Since it is obvious that certain changes can be made in the foregoing construction without departing from the spirit and scope of this invention, it is intended that all matter shown in the accompanying drawings or described hereinbefore shall be interpreted as illustrative and not in a limiting sense.

I claim as my invention:

1. In a hospital bed having a bed frame with supporting legs, a pivotal spring section supported on said frame, a first cross shaft pivotally mounted across the bed frame below said spring section and having lift arms rigidly attached towards the ends thereof for sliding engagement with the underside of said spring section for raising and lowering the same, the improvement comprising in combination, a hydraulic jack for raising and lowering said spring section including a cylinder having an upper end and a lower end, a piston mounted in said cylinder, a

piston rod connected with the piston and extending out from the upper end of said cylinder, an oscillating lever actuated hydraulic pump and a control valve mounted on said pump, a hydraulic jack control lever fixed to said control valve and adapted to move the same, said cylinder being pivotally connected at its lower end to a leg of said bed frame at a point spaced below said spring section and extending at an upward incline in all positions of lift toward but under the spring section wherein the pump cylinder and piston rod in all positions of operation eX- tend in a straight line which intersects said pivotal spring section being raised and lowered; said piston rod being directly connected to one of said lift arms toward the end thereof which is in sliding engagement with the underside of said spring section whereby the hydraulic cylinder has the thrust thereof always acting in a direction to intersect said spring section; a second cross shaft spaced parallel to said first cross shaft and pivotally attached to said ed frame and having means at each end for detachably connecting the manually actuatable lever; an actuating lever for oscillating said second shaft detachably mounted on one end of the second cross shaft and mountable on the other end and extending upwardly beyond said bed frame for manual actuation; an arm rigidly attached to said second shaft and depending therefrom below said bed frame; a connecting rod having one end pivotally connected to said second cross shaft arm and at the other end pivotally connected to the lever of said oscillating lever actuated pump for the hydraulic jack; control means for said hydraulic jack control valve lever attachable to said bed frame adjacent said actuating lever and connected to the hydraulic jack control valve lever for moving same whereby the hydraulic jack is allowed to raise said spring section when the control valve lever is moved to one position and the hand lever connected to the second cross shaft is oscillated and when the control valve lever is moved to another position said hydraulic jack allows said spring section to be lowered.

2. Apparatus of the character described in claim 1 wherein said control means for said hydraulic jack control valve lever comprises a Bowden wire having one end attached to said hydraulic jack control valve lever and the other end being provided with a manual actuating knob.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 55,496 Hutchinson June 12, 1866 609,819 Lawrence Aug. 30, 1898 705,425 Musser July 22, 1902 806,091 Andrews Dec. 5, 1905 811,713 Gronde Feb. 6, 1906 1,073,194 Weimer Sept. 16, 1913 2,168,649 Johnson Aug. 8, 1939 2,215,636 Comper Sept. 24, 1940 2,263,784 Peterson Nov. 25, 1941 2,297,105 Laukhuif Sept. 29, 1942 2,540,133 Miller Feb. 6, 1951 2,625,839 Coleman Jan. 20, 1953 

